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R E V I EWS | ATTITU D E
3/5
CUPCAKES
A nat W axman , O fer S chechter , Y ael B ar -Z ohar
A gaggle of Tel Aviv neighbours, including an
ex-beauty queen (Bar-Zohar) and a drag-loving
kindergarten teacher (Schechter), decide to
audition for the Unisong international singing
contest (read: Eurovision) to lift their friend
(Waxman) out of her splitsville funk. This
candy-coloured confection marks the frothiest
feature yet from director Eytan Fox, who
previously explored gay Israeli life in The Bubble,
Yossi & Jagger and Yossi. As corny as it is kitsch,
it’s the perfect homage to Eurovision itself.
R eleased on 25 A pril
4/5
3/5
THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY
THE CANYONS
V iggo M ortensen , O scar I saac , K irsten D unst
Patricia Highsmith’s travelogues of murder and
homoeroticism lend themselves to big-screen
makeovers and writer-director Hossein Amini
squeezes maximum tension out of one of her
lesser-known novels. The story sees Isaac’s lowlevel scam artist sucked into the criminal vortex
of a glamorous American couple (Dunst and
Mortensen) in 1962 Athens, getting flirty with
the former and combative with the latter. Amini
weaves it as a deliberately old-fashioned thriller,
but it’s no less compelling for that.
R eleased on 16 M ay
L indsay L ohan , J ames D een , N olan G erard F unk
The Canyons arrives with stacks of notoriety, thanks to its position as the mainstream
debut of porn veteran James Deen and the on-set diva tantrums of Lindsay Lohan. Oh
Lindsay, where did it all go wrong? Before becoming this century’s saddest celebrity car
crash, Lohan exuded attitude and vulnerability on screen, and there are glimpses of her
skittish talent here, even if they are shrouded beneath thick layers of make-up. Written by
Bret Easton Ellis and directed by Paul Schrader, it’s a softcore thriller about a trustafarian
(Deen) who spirals out of control when he suspects his gold-digging girlfriend (Lohan) is
shagging a wannabe actor (Funk, the face of Versace 2014). Everybody here has had better
days at the office (including Deen), but we’re still filing this under ‘guilty pleasure’ for its
soap opera plotting and Lohan’s mesmeric baring of body and soul in the name of career
resurrection. Compulsively watchable trash, in other words.
R eleased on 9 M ay
3/5
ENEMY
J ake G yllenhaal , M elanie L aurent , S arah G adon
Two Jakes for the price of one: who can resist?
There’s much to relish in this brain-teasing
mystery, in which Gyllenhaal’s sad-sack history
professor discovers he has a doppelganger – a
not-so-nice actor with a pregnant wife (Gadon).
The first half unfolds with creepy efficiency,
with increasingly disoriented turns from
Gyllenhaal, Gadon and Melanie Laurent, as nice
Jake’s gf, before ponderousness, an overinsistent
score and one very large spider prevail.
R eleased on 16 M ay
reviews: matt mueller
244_EDIT_FILMS & REVIEWS#.indd 27
BLUE RUIN
4/5
M acon B lair , D evin R atray ,
A my H argreaves
This lo-fi revenge yarn from Jeremy
Saulnier is reminiscent of the Coen
brothers’ 1984 debut Blood Simple.
Both films mix pulpy noir and
slasher movie conventions into a
heady brew; both feature brutal
retribution and scuzzy protagonists;
and both announce their makers as
exciting new voices on the cinematic
scene. Watching melancholy,
rough-living outcast Dwight (Blair)
turn ruthless assassin against the
white-trash crime clan who stole
his life away makes for a macabre,
gutpunching ride.
R eleased on 2 M ay
27
15/04/2014 15:00:25